Hi, I just got accepted to the MS in Computer Science program at NYU and have a few questions.1. Are top financial companies willing to hire developers if they have not finished the MSCS yet?2. We are allowed 6 elective courses and I was thinking of taking the first 6 courses in the MS in Financial Math program at NYU. Would a top financial company be willing to consider me for a quant job if I did this? Or is a MS in Fin Math degree required?Thank you.

QuoteOriginally posted by: xploringHi, I just got accepted to the MS in Computer Science program at NYU and have a few questions.1. Are top financial companies willing to hire developers if they have not finished the MSCS yet?2. We are allowed 6 elective courses and I was thinking of taking the first 6 courses in the MS in Financial Math program at NYU. Would a top financial company be willing to consider me for a quant job if I did this? Or is a MS in Fin Math degree required?Thank you.For your own sake find a good Tech company to work for. Did you go into a CS program to go work for a Finance firm. If not, then don't do it.To answer your question - Yes they do hire people with that background. I remember interviewing a person while in IB. He was fresh out of school and had a strong quantitative background. We sent him to the Quantitative Library Group where we thought he would be better fitted than the IT Web Development group. Most of his responsibilities would still be programming BTW. Except, instead of programming software and infrastructure based systems (which is quite challenging as you would know), he would be developing math libraries in some proprietary language .

1) yes.2) yes, but try real hard to get a good internship.

OP, where did you get the idea that top financial companies only hire developers who have finished an MSCS?

Elysian, I have tried to apply for junior dev jobs but have never gotten an interview (it doesn't help that I have 6 years of web development work). So figured that nobody will interview me for a dev job unless I have a MS in CS.

QuoteOriginally posted by: xploringElysian, I have tried to apply for junior dev jobs but have never gotten an interview (it doesn't help that I have 6 years of web development work). So figured that nobody will interview me for a dev job unless I have a MS in CS.Your Web Dev background will haunt you when you apply for Quant Dev jobs. One suggestion since you are going into a CS program in NYU, get strong in Big Data and Machine Learning. The field has tremendous potential and pays very well. You have the years of experience to back your skills, so you will do very well. If you don't make it to a good job in Finance, you will get a great job elsewhere. My opinion is that your should take a lot of Machine Learning electives but avoid the quant finance ones. They still emphasize a lot on Stochastic Calculus and it will be a real waste of time given where you are likely to land a job. Machine Learning especially Bayesian Statistics will help you in conjunction with CS and Big Data/Hadoop knowledge.

xploring -The news is grim. The odds are against you.At a bank, you will NOT become a quant. You cannot develop enough math in 6 classes during an MS, and will be pigeon holed as an IT guy. You won't even be maintaining quant libraries. You'll just be booking trades into the system, or maintaining those systems.If you want a job in finance, go to the buy side to a large hedge fund after your MS. Learn things like low latency programming, compiler optimization, machine learning, time series analysis; and learn them well.

QuoteYou cannot develop enough math in 6 classes during an MSWow! Do CS educations do maths? Or do they call it maths?

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteYou cannot develop enough math in 6 classes during an MSWow! Do CS educations do maths? Or do they call it maths?Realistically, at least States-side, math classes in CS programs tend to be not as rigorous as in the Math department for Math undergrad or Math grad programs. I have rarely found someone with a CS degree who understands measure theory. It is one thing to say "dW^2 = dt" and get on with life and another to actually understand the topic.It is better for OP to go into this with realistic expectations. The hiring managers for "derivative pricing in banks" will look at the resume and say "CS undergrad, 6 years web developer, CS MS with Math minor" == IT, and pack him off to the group that books trades or maintains those systems.Better to pick up some statistics, avoid banks altogether and go off to buy side, where programmer, quant and trader are more fungible.

QuoteI have rarely found someone with a CS degree who understands measure theoryUnless they have 2 degrees, CS and mathematics.

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteI have rarely found someone with a CS degree who understands measure theoryUnless they have 2 degrees, CS and mathematics.True that. But each better be a full degree, not a "minor".

(dbl)

QuoteOriginally posted by: ArthurDentQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteI have rarely found someone with a CS degree who understands measure theoryUnless they have 2 degrees, CS and mathematics.True that. But each better be a full degree, not a "minor".I mean 2 separate 'full' degrees, in parallel. But that was in the old days, before InternetI like CS but only when it is applied to engineering. The pity with CS edu is (sometimes) the disdain for real-world applications. One guy in our Mathematics group could read and write machine code because assembler and FORTRAN were too inefficient.

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnOne guy in our Mathematics group could read and write machine code because assembler and FORTRAN were too inefficient.Was that Chuck Norris?

What was he doing in machine code that was inefficient in assembly ?